


Draco with a stag tattoo

by Luizalds



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Naruto
Genre: Drama, Good Draco, Humor, M/M, Minato lives, MoD Harry, Reincarnation, Tattoo, Veela
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-06-07 16:30:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6813184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luizalds/pseuds/Luizalds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically, a huge AU in witch Harry and Draco get reincarnated from time to time, this time at the Naruto world. But things don't go smoothly, because let's face it, it's Harry we are talking about. Draco totally did everything right. Minato's shiki fuujin calls a Shinigami, the Shinigami calls Harry, Harry is Tsuyoshi, Fugaku's middle son- what? And Draco is/was the nidaime? !</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Dear readers, please read this,
> 
> I started this fic because I created this really weird scenario in my head that I thought was really interesting. I couldn't find anything similar so I ended up thinking about constantly and expanding it in my head. It got to a point where I really just wanted someone to write this but both of this fandoms don't participate much in kink memes and I didn't know where to put this idea at.
> 
> In the end my friend told me to give in and write and I did. I wrote some and thought it was interesting enough to to post. If you liked the idea feel free to use it anyway you want, to write another fic or whatever. But PLEASE at least mention on your fic that mine was the original. And most importantly, TELL ME ABOUT YOURS PLEASE, I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO READ IT.
> 
> I HOPE SOMEONE GETS INSPIRED.
> 
> Also: not native English speaker, if there are mistakes please don't be an ass about it. The same goes for little errors in cannon and stuff, tell me and if it doesn't mess up the fic I'll fix it ok?

What if Draco was a veela and Harry his intended mate?

If Draco did what he thought best and just protected Harry from a distance? All the while mantaining appearances. Helping in little things and always by the shadows. Being a spy that passed information on to Snape who then passed it on farther. Sending Dobby. Failing at tasks from the Dark Lord when possible, and getting punished for it?

What if Draco wouldn't kill Dumbledore because he knew that would hurt Harry and stall out the war?

If after the war he was put on trial under veritaserum and explained everything?

What if Harry ended up being friends with Draco, appreciating him but never completing the mating bond. Still marrying Ginny and having kids.

When another war broke out, ten years latter, and Harry talked to Death and found out he would end up living forever? What if he told Draco and the man accepted it, comforted him and promised to find a way to stay with him trough it all?

What if they actually found a way to do that? What if that way was for Draco to be reincarnated into baby after baby, that slowly gained back their memories of being Draco? And if Harry carried on his role as MOD and chose to be reincarnated alongside Draco a bunch of times?

And if at the war someone tried to kill Harry's family, Draco protected them and ended up dying?

What if Harry had gotten to know a loyal, strong, honest, loving Draco as a friend to the very end of Draco's first life?

-/-

Hand seals made, chakra correctly molded, focus, enough chakra... Why the fuck didn't the seal work?!

Minato, with great effort and pain may he add, dislodges himself and Kushina from the kyuubi, takes Naruto, uses a hiraishin tag and transports the three of them to a little bit away from the huge beast.

He lays Kushina on the ground, carefully. She has blood all over and a hunted look on her face. Some people die with a smile, but none of them get to keep it in death, the muscles slacken and all dead just look very, well, dead.

He leaves Kushina and moves beside the Kyuubi with little Naruto. Quickly the fourth Hokage manages to perform the shiki fuujin again. He feels bitter pain in leaving his child alone and with such a big burden, but most of all he is relieved, there won't be any more deaths tonight.

Kushina's is more than enough for a tragedy.

There is the little mistery of the masked man, but he doesn't have enough time to do anything about it, and so he focus his chakra, like he has a thousand times before, and calls up the seal he has never actually used successfully. Second time is the charm, they say.

What happens next is, well, it's nothing. Minato tries again and, nothing happens. Like, really. Nothing. At all! ?

The kyuubi is trashing and minato is NOT panicking, 'cause this was supposed to be over already, and Kushina is dead dead dead.

Naruto is fussing in his arms, cold and fourth Hokage puts containment seals on and around the kyubii, with the help of the hiraishin speed, and in the end he is atop the bijuu. It's still spreading so much chakra it's ridiculous.

Minato is the Hokage and he is figuring out an alternative, he takes a big breath to shout out orders because fuck! Him and his child are on top of a giant fucking chakra monster being controlled by a unknown sharingan user, and his shinobi, his fucking PEOPLE are below and he needs to-! And KUSHINA IS DEAD and -!

There is no way to explain what happens next, if not by stating it plainly: a four year old appears out of nowhere, being held by a semi-translucent shinigami, with tiny hands fisted in the beings clothes and a thumb in his small, innocent, little, bow mouth.

The kid is solid and attention catching in the arms of the white, faded out shinigami with an oni mask, a small sword and beads around his neck.

For a quarter of a second everything stops, Minato looks at the two.

The shinigami and the child look back.

A quarter of a second is a death sentence in such situations and in a flash Minato has backed up and his tight hold on Naruto becomes even tighter. The Shinigami seems to be made of nothing and the child looks and feels normal to him but than again, being made of nothing can be a huge avantage in a fight, like the masked man has shown him tonight and Minato is very aware of his open chest wound, his depleted chakra and etc. This is such a nightmare.

Minato takes a peak at Naruto, his SON, Naruto. So loved by him and Kushina from the very start of its existence and he will be left alone after tonight. Because Kushina is dead and he will soon be too.

He loves his village but he knows it's sad being an orphan, even if you don't show it. Even if you are positive and dream big, and in the end you can actually get everything you ever wanted, the memory of not having anyone trully yours doesn't fade.

He knows Naruto will probably not be adopted by any shinobi family, that could truly understand his burden, because those people or that clan would gain a person with too great a power and that would never pass with the council and clans. And if Naruto gets adopted by a civilian family they will never understand his burden, not really.

Still, he hopes a great and loving civilian family gets chosen for his little hero, he trusts Hiruzen and sensei to protect his child.

Seeing the Shinigami the blond cannot ignore the fact this is not proceeding as he had believed. He knew about the seal and how it worked, at least he thought he did until this moment.

In that split second he thinks about the description of the seal, it says it takes a soul, and seal's whatever into said soul, he thought it would be the callers, but it wasn't actually, explicitly, stated so on the seal's description. It was only written so on the historical and theoretical part of the text. Maybe the Shinigami wants to use this child's soul? Minato would never let that happen.

By this point Hiruzen-Sama is next to him ready to attack again and his shinobi are close by, waiting orders.

The kyuubi is stone still and it looks at the child also, it does not go unnoticed by any of the shinobi.

They all stand tense, waiting for a queue from the strange dual.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY! Yes, you! The ones that followed this?
> 
> Thanks :)
> 
> if you left kudos there is a cookie in my house with your name on it. Relax, I'll eat for you ;)

Minato finally recognizes the sleepy, pajama clad, bed headed child as Uchiha Tsuyoshi, Fugaku's middle child.

"Shinigami-sama, I'm the leader of this village and the one that has asked for your help, I would ask you to use my soul as payment for it and seal what of the most harmful power of the bijuu it can take into it, the rest, please seal it in this child." He makes sure to sound calm, but honestly, how do you beat a shinigami? He has no clue, and no more chakra or blood either, so he is hoping you can at least bargain with it. He won't let anyone else die tonight. Especially a child. Not his and not Fugaku's.

" Minato. I've lived a long and happy life. It would be a fine ending to go out protecting my village one last time." Hiruzen is happy he has the chance to die in place of Minato, he makes a fine Hokage, it's an honor to protect him and by proxy the village.

He wishes he could say good bye to his family, but doesn't every shinobi?" I'll be the sacrifice, you can't leave little Naruto all alone after all." He gives a smile to a blank-faced Minato and knows the new father will let him be the sacrifice.

Minato squeezes Hiruzen's shoulder and can't help but grimace, he will let the old Hokage do this, he doesn't want to, and its selfish, but he will. "Are you sure Hiruzen-sama? Absolutely sure?" If the former Hokage is not, Minato won't hesitate to take that place. He does not want to leave Naruto, but he does not want to live without Kushina or let Hiruzen die either.

They are whispering a few meters from the shinigami, still atop the bijuu, when Tsu-kun starts yawning up a storm, cutely rubbing his face on the death God's shoulder.

Everyone near, does not miss the following actions.

The Shinigami bounces the child gently up and down. " Do you wish to go back to your resting Master?" The Shinigami says in a soft voice and every shinobi does a double take.

.

.

.

"Eh?" Minato almost stumbles comically and Hiruzen gives the God a dubious look with a good amount of 'WTF?' Mixed in.

On the tree line an exhausted nameless chunnin snorts and breaks the moment.

The shinigami continues to bounce the child gently as Minato, and Hiruzen, take a cautious step forward, Naruto still on Minato's arms, fussing but very tired. "Ano... Shinigami-sama?"

The white haired spirit looks at them and stares. "Indeed. " he says, monotone.

Stunted silence.

"... Yes, haha, Shinigami-sama, as I've said." He gets his wits back and continues. " I'm the one to have called you trough the death seal, to seal the kyuubi no yoko that has caused many deaths in my village. I was led to believe a soul is needed as payment and I'm willing to pay it. Was that not the case?"

Hiruzen bows his head just a little and offers himself as well. "I'm willing, also, to be taken as payment. Shinigami-sama." Several shinobi in the tree line want to offer themselves for their Hokage and and former Hokage's continuos living but a hand sign from Minato has them rigidly staying back.

Hiruzen approves of it.

At this point the Shinigami is looking at the two humans in front of him blankly, paying more attention to the bijuu beneath his floating feet, it seems even the fox notice's his Master's strange power. The humans look as puzzled as always, it's a bit weird to think he had once been as clueless as them.

Tsuyoshi is annoyed at the cold and accepts he really isn't going back to sleep anytime soon, at this he sniffs and takes his head out of its hiding place at Shinigami-kun's shoulder.

"Shini-san, it's cold." He wasn't whining, no matter what Onii-chan says, he does not whine.

" Indeed Master, but you had asked to be notified of the use of this seal. I can, however, deal with it if you so want it Tsuyoshi. Would you like me to return you to your bed now?"

"Whaaaa...?" He is a little sleepy, who can blame him? He was taken out of bed in the middle of the night! Death has no respect even after all this years...(?)

" Hum... I guess it's better to be told than not to... It's important so I forgive you Shini-san" Pating the being's clothed shoulder softly. Thinking of when nii-chan left for a mission and didn't even tell him and the little rightness he feels at being here, even if it's cold.

"Did it have to be in the middle of the night though?" He is not pouting, he does not pout, no matter what onii-chan says. Where is onii-chan anyways?

Uchiha Tsuyoshi definitely does not pout, but he does rub his eyes and yawn.

To the bafflement of all the shinobi around the Shinigami responds, dare they say, fondly? To the child. " Well, I can always just take you back to your bed and resolve all of this myself, Master. I don't even know why you would like to be involved in such dealings. You are very young right now, don't you think it's best to wait?" The Shinigami says lowly, very calm and monotone.

"Humph!" Tsuyoshi knows he is the Master of death, he knows he has asked all of the Shinigami to warn him if the spell, or if any variation of the summoning spell he created, was ever used. He doesn't know how he knows, but this is a variation of it.

The little Uchiha thinks he is mature enough to understand some of this, but he wants warmth and a comfortable bed right now. Because suddenly Tsuyoshi has lots and lots of memories where he is important and powerful and that's overwhelming.

The four year old feels to his very heart that he should be right where he is tonight, but that doesn't mean he isn't very confused and upset.

When he tries to pay attention to all his thoughts and memories and it kinda hurts his head. Ouch.

" owwwww!" He sniffs and curls up to the Shinigami. Slowly a couple of fat tears form on his eyes, his head hurts. He remembers more and more and it's so, SO, sad. It hurts to think about it. His heart hurts and his head and he just. It hurts. He wants nii-chan and kaa-san and otou-san and.

He sniffs more often, his tears fall and are followed by many more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I've said, if you get inspired by it feel free to write whatever and link it to me yeah? If you know a story with a vibe like this one, send it to me you kind person.


	3. Chapter three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, thanks for the kudos and follows. I really and for reals appreciate it.
> 
> If you get I pried by this please write something and link it to me cause I want to read it SO MUCH!

The Shinigami does not like his Master crying. His Master is special and deserving. It's not going too far to say the Shinigami is fond of his Master, it's not a big emotion, it's a tiny spark. For beings that don't regularly feel anything that is precious.

" Namikaze Minato, your seal was created with the basis of a spell created by the Master of Death himself. You use its power without understanding its meaning. You have called for a meeting with an agent of Death, and you have got it. The sealing of this bijuu is another matter entirely, it demands a contract with a price for the gift asked.

My Master is distressed and cannot make a decision at the moment, to accept your plea or nay, or for what price. Until such a time is seen, the subject of the sealing will be held by the power of death and shall not bother you. For that favor you are held to a favor exchange. Do you accept it?"

Minato thinks that the Shinigami is way too vague, not to mention his annoying monotone, but his legs are numb, he's all numb actually, from blood loss. But still hurting, exactly how does that work? And so he asks for clarification. " What would you ask as a favor?"

The Shinigami is amused at the human, no matter what he asks the leader will give it to him, because he is the only thing between the bijuu and the man's precious village, and they both know it.

He wonders what limits this person would and would not cross. Minato wanders the same.

"My Master is distressed." Indeed, his master is sniffling and leaking at his shoulder for a minute now and that sits wrong with him. "It would be wise to fix h-"

Tsuyoshi makes a distressed noise followed by a surprised "oh."

The child remembers more now, it's like things he never even thought about are suddenly real, it doesn't make a lot of sense, this little snipets of memories, but he feels like he lost something, and found something else in return. The new thing fits, even though it makes his head hurt and his heart heavy. He feels like crying a little more, because he is so alone, and where is?! He wasn't supposed to be alone anymore.

Anyways, he puts his head up, unknowingly showing his one tomoe sharingan to the Hokages.

There is a little corner of his mind telling him to take action, to get some safety out of this (today is important!), it's the same corner that processes the memories. He has to find a way to-! go out winning? He could let the Shinigami deal with it but something tells him not to. He is starting to hate his own brain, not himself , mind, just this annoying itch inside his head.

So he turns his head to the Hokages and takes a deep breath, like Otou-san always says, he keeps calm and then he speaks."Hokages-sama, the kitsune will be good for us, so let's go inside now ok?" His voice doesn't waver much and he doesn't blanch from them, dealing with his fucked up vision or stress, he is pretty proud.

He didn't really plan the words but they seem alright.

The Hokages look at him weirdly, but he doesn't really mind, he has been trough worse looks. Wait, no he hasn't. What?

Minato nods." This way Shinigami-sama, Tsuyoshi-kun." He smiles his charming fake smile number 2 and leads the way to the Hokage tower. Hiruzen at his side, both showing their backs to a fucking Shinigami, both tense and at attention.

Discretely Minato gives the hand signs for caution, follow and hidden. He knows Shikaku will devise a way to guard the kyubii so he doesn't even mention it.

Naruto is a heavy weight in his arms but he can't give him to his shinobi and call attention to them.

Tsuyoshi is calm on the way to the tower, he observes the forest and when the double motions gets too much he hides his head and closes his eyes. His eyes are as itchy and achy as his head. Unknowingly he closed his eyes to the destruction and bodies present even this far off the epicenter.

they continue walking for a little while.

At last he peeks out. They are already inside, going up a loooots of steps. They end up in a medium sized room with a round table and some chairs around it.

Despite the chairs nobody sits.

Tsuyoshi likes that he isn't as cold, he never really liked the cold. "Ano, Hokages-sama?"

Minato and Hiruzen, previously looking at him but pretending to only be looking at Shini-san, look at him and start smiling softly. Somehow he knows it's a little fake but he still gets more at ease, maybe it's the same way he knows what he wants next, but doesn't know why he wants it.

"Nani, Tsuyoshi-kun?"

Tsuyoshi is still a little hidden in the Shinigami's shoulder, but managing to keep looking at them, he continues. He is a brave boy. " You need to call the clan leader people, ok?"

Minato gets tenser. "And why is that Tsuyoshi-kun?"

The four year old fist his hands on the clothing but forges on. "I don't really really know, but I really want to talk to them." It's the truth, he just knows the clans have to be involved in some way.

Seeing that the Shinigami somehow defers to the child, and is looking at them seemingly patiently, the Hokages look at each other and seem to come to a conclusion. But before they reveal it Minato speaks up again. "Will you promise to not hurt them Tsuyoshi-Kun? They are really nice and important people, they weren't even the ones to have used the seal, they only risked their lives to keep the village safe."

The child's immediate response is "huh?"

The Shinigami saves his master by proceeding. "We do not mean harm to your humans Namikaze, but it will depend on their actions during this discussion. My master does not harm without reason." That is normally the truth, it's one of the reason the Shinigami and Death lo- likes the Master so much.

He knows his Master is not at full potential and cautiously adds. "Make sure to summon only the clan heads, Hokage."

And so Minato calls up his anbu, making sure to signal careful and appear in that order and very clearly, there will be no more deaths tonight. With the anbu, Jiraya also shows up, with an anbu mask on. And Minato knows that Shibi is with them temporarily so there has been a clan head with good observation skills carefully analyzing this since they entered the room, at least. He feels a little better.

He passes Naruto to Jiraya with a heavy look and speaks to his anbu. "Get me every clan head here as quickly and discretely as possible. If need be, tell them it is an urgent matter and help relieve them of their posts. " He does not give them permission to move yet.

He looks at little Uchiha. " If any of them are too injured to come, dead or lost, what would you like to do Tsuyoshi-kun?"

First of all, he wants to see if the Shinigami will speak over the child, he doubts it with what he's seen so far but it's a good thing to check his findings. Secondly he genuinely wants to know what the child will do. And thirdly he wanted to see how the child reacts to knowledge of real people hurt, dead or missing.

The child rubs his head on the Shinigami's shoulder at the situations de scripted, he let's his body act and, before he can think, starts speaking. " If they are dead call the next in line, if they are really hurt leave them at the hospital, if they are missing look for them..?" He sounds a little Shinigami is as unruffled as ever.

Minato nods and gives the anbu the go ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> really sleepy right now, maybe I'll edit it latter. I'm still indecisive about Harry's name: Tsuyoshi, Suzuko or Ryuu. Tell me what you think and maybe I'll change it.
> 
> byeeeee.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, kudoing, following.

Only the initial four remain in the room.

The child seems comfortable if a bit fidgety and the Shinigami looks just fine.

Minato is a mess, blood all over his clothes, pale and dizzy, hurting all over. Right now he wishes he had taken those medic classes with Tsunade-sama. Well, what he really wishes for is Kushina but it doesn't look like that will ever happen.

A little voice in his head tells him to beg the Shinigami to bring her back but a bigger part knows it would never work like that.

Have they recovered her body yet? Have they washed the blood off and seen her beautiful face immortalized in paleness and bruises? Have they touched her body with care?

His knees shake and collapse. Hiruzen helps him maneuver to a chair, more like puts him on a chair, but whatever.

Hiruzen keeps his senses open for hostility but does not feel any at all, like he hasn't felt even once from the two. The Shinigami told them to only call for clan heads but he didn't seem to mind the anbu a few minutes ago, Hiruzen gambles on it. Without looking at the Shinigami, or child, he signals for a medic and an anbu appears out of the shadows.

Since Hiruzen first heard the Shinigami calling the child Master, somethings has been nagging at him. He knows it's important but he could not remember it for the life of him. Until they entered the room, that is. 

He has been on this room before, of course he has, he had been the Hokage for a long time and, even before that, his sensei had been a Hokage, brother to another Hokage. And so, him and his genin team have spent many hours at the tower doing this or that, in fact one of him first D-ranks was to organize and clean a ridiculous amount of unclassified documents held in the tower.

When he entered the room tonight, he remembers Tobirama-sensei drilling his first team on the importance of honest discussion and feedback.

At the time they were still young and used to platitudes and social niceties. Tobirama-sensei was, maybe, the most honest human to have ever been. Don't misunderstand that statement, Tobirama was capable of being polite and giving out white lies but he believed in being brutally honest with his genin and fellow ninja, especially when it came to their current abilities, their failures, their good points, style, performance and etc.

One day their sensei brought them to this room, sat them around the table and told them to discuss their past missions, what they thought of each other's abilities, their values, even their personalities and family. They had tried to be polite and not say anything too harsh at first but eventually their sensei would manipulate them until they ended up being one hundred per cent honest. Their teamwork suffered for a while, just until they realized every single one of them had worked harder than ever on the things commented on. After that they worked in leveling out this teamwork again.

On that day his teammates told him they were absolutely appalled with how disorganized he was, such as when he could never find things in his long mission's pack, because it got so messy. Since that day he made a bigger effort to keep, at least his pack, neat.

Not too long after that, it was that fated mission that sensei died. At the end of that week Hiruzen had been home again, even being so very tired. Like it had become routine, he started cleaning out his pack. There he found a scroll.

He made sure it was not a trap and opened it. It had been a message and some techniques by his mentor to him. 

Basically it told him that his sensei had thought of and created some techniques that would maybe be useful and suited him. At the end was a ominous message. It said: ' If the Master of Death ever comes, use this technique and call for my help. Only if that happens use this technique, this is an unfinished jutsu and very untested. It is my wish for it to never be used, I entrust this to you Saru, take care of it. Remember: Only for the Master of Death.' -Senju Tobirama.

After the messages was a seal containing the full process and explanation of the Impure World Reincarnation summoning, six flask of blood and a sealed pottery piece filled with, well it was sealed, how would he know what the fuck was in there? The container was labeled 'ingredients'. 

At first he was a little shocked and disgusted, then tempted, he felt lost and in mourning. At the end he vowed to not use if the 'Master of Detah' did not show up.

When his eldest reached chunnin Hiruzen entrusted the knowledge in the scroll to him, and latter when his youngest made chunnin he did the same. Telling them to decide if they would pass it on to their children or not.

After so many years he had even started to forget about it. And so it came as shock when he realized little Uchiha Tsuyoshi was being called Master by a Shinigami. Did that count? He waited until the anbu had departed and finally, when Minato started falling, he decided and he felt that yes, it did. 

When he calls the medic he carefully helps maneuvering Minato to the floor, turning his back to the Shinigami. He carefully summons a little red haired monkey, timed with the smoke of the unsealing of the medics med-pouch, and signals it to take a message to his son, Azuma.

The monkey runs to the inside of the medic's med-pouch and hides. 

The Sarutobi is glad he told Azuma about that secret years ago, he hopes Azuma will be able to perform the technique.

Some times it's funny what will jar a memory loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to use this idea you are free to, just please mentioned me being the first ok? And pleeeease link it to me.


	5. Chapter five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is some more. If you wan to use this idea warn me and link me but feel free.

The Shinigami sees the little monkey, he thinks it of no consequence, if his Master had wanted complete privacy he would have said so. Probably. Well, if need be he can fix it latter, nothing of great importance has been revealed yet, when the actually important talks begin he will ward the place.

Tsuyoshi continues being draped over the Shinigami.

Minato is getting healed by a medic as best as possible and if the child does not want Minato to die yet, and the man does not die from the deadly wounds, well that's just a coincidence.

-/-

A few meters away from the tower all the clan heads are having a little briefing.

When they hear about the child and the Shinigami they are all confused, even if most do not show it.

When they hear the child is Uchiha Tsuyoshi, or at least someone henged as the child, they start getting even more wary of Fugaku, they had all come to the conclusion that the kyuubi was being controlled by a member of said clan.

Fugaku is very shocked and immediately concludes its a henge, even if anbu tells them it probably isn't.

He is a man that likes to think a situation trough and get to the best conclusion, he is not the quickest of thinkers but he normally obtains a good result, honestly, if not by the veracity of the anbu agents and the overall fucked over situation Fugaku would have concluded it was all a prank. His middle son wasknow as a trouble maker, maybe it was someone teasing him about it, he wouldn't put it past some people.

In reality Tsuyoshi just seemed to have very bad luck. But even Tsuyoshi is not that prone to trouble.

His four year old has always been a rather agreeable child, him being involved in anything to do with death was a bit ridiculous. So much so that he and Mikoto have worried about his future as a shinobi.

Where Itachi had been slowly waned off of his excessive gentleness the lessons seemed to slide off of Tsuyoshi by the next day. Even when training, he tried to make it happy and playful, when he was pushed and pushed to the point his bruises had bruises he smiled shyly and pressed on. He had, at some point, named his tools, taking care of each one as if they were valuable individually. The more they tried to make him let go of his weird personality traits the more he seemed to stick to it.

Fugaku could not deny he was a little amused that his son would not be conform to the Uchiha clan. And if he had proof that he tried his best when being confronted by the elders, well that was just great.

The Uchiha clan head ignored the looks and the general wary feels and heard the rest of the information.

-/-

After every clan head was debriefed they were checked by a medic, interestingly enough none of them had injuries that could not be healed, just broken bones, lacerations and medium burns, they headed to the tower.

-/-

All of them entered by the discreet entrance and made their way up to the heavily guarded room, all of the anbu that had been with them already back at their posts, some visible, most not.

The door to the room opened and they all entered quickly and smoothly. Promptly focusing their attention at the white haired, semi translucent Shinigami. And the child, obviously, because what the fuck?

They had been told but it was still so very bizarre that they had to use a good part of their acting skills to not deadpan, snort, panic or just turn around and leave.

As it was, the former Hokage welcomed them from one of the chairs with a nod. "If you would sit down, honorable clan heads." His tone was formal, the tone they only heard when things got serious in council meetings and such.

They all sat around the table, some more outwardly tense than others.

The Shinigami was still on his feet by the wall opposite the door, the child seemed very tired and like it was nursing a good headache, it did not lift its head until all the shinobi were seated and the Shinigami moved to sit in one of the empty chairs, as distant as possible, with some spare chairs in each side of the Shinigami.

The Shinigami seated himself and slipped the child to his lap, causing Tsuyoshi to be more aware and open his eyes, his red, one tome eyes, looking around the room from Hiruzen, close to the door on the far left, to Fugaku, far in the right.

As soon as Tsuyoshi noticed Fugaku he started bawling his eyes out. The little one stretched his arms out to his tou-san. He liked Shini-san but maybe Tou-san would make the hurt go away now.

Fugaku refused to give in and get up, he narrowed his eyes, activated his sharingan and looked at the child. He looked exactly like Tsyoshi, every detail. Fugaku was very confused, was it possible Tsuyoshi was this much of a problem magnet? Surely not.

"Touuuuuu-sannnnn! Itaiiiiiii." His head was hurting and Tsuyoshi wanted it to stop right now.

Fugaku looked the child in the eyes, sharingan eyes, and spoke. "If you are truly Uchiha Tsuyoshi tell me a secret." It was a simple code he taught all his children at some point, trough out their lives Fugaku would pick little moments and tell them it was a secret. Though Sasuke didn't really understand yet.

Little things that only they would know and so could be used to confirm identity and such. Tsuyoshi was still too young for more complicated codes, that would indicate injury, stackers, abilities etc. but he had made sure Tsuyoshi knew this one.

It took a second for the child to process it but when he did he hiccuped and nodded slowly. His daddy was serious about secrets he knew that.

He chose the first one to come to mind. "When Itachi-nii went to eat dango he took me too and I ate lots and we came back home and were late. So, uh, so tou-san said we had to make it up in training but nii-chan was called out and, and I" he blushed and made a face at his dad. "I. I wanted to nap so I said I was gonna trow up but tou-san said no napping, but I wasn't lying and so I, ugh, so I threw up," the kid squirmed embarrassed but continued on as to prove he knew it all. " and it was ALL pink all over me and tou-san and the cat and shuriken and everything." The child was blushing a lot but he continued looking at Fugaku like he had been taught to. Cheeks puffing out. "And then tou-san said " let's not tell anyone, especially kaa-chan, it's 'nother secret""

The occupants in the room were tense but the image on their head was hilarious. Tsume could not resist the child's red, earnest, face and snorted at Fugaku's blank one, just imagining that stiff guy covered in pink vomit, holding a puked over little kid and convincing it to not tell Mikoto made her want to laugh out loud.

They can say what they want but she did have manners, seriously my she totally did, she was, after all, kind of managing to hold back the laughter.

Hiruzen gave Fugaku an amused look, he had been there, little Azuma had been a little disgusting but still cute and lovable child.

Minato gave the pair a gentle smile, thinking about Naruto and if that would happen to him too. His smile faded when he thought about Kushina not being there. Regardless, he would not think about that right now. Shikaku, Inoichi and Chouza were all sympathetic, going trough the diaper phase.

Though none other than Minato showed it on their faces.

This all happened simultaneously and Fugaku was up and across the room, sharingan still on, in a fraction of a second he tookhis defenseless little brattling away from thefucking Godamnit Shonigami. Between a blink and the next he was back beside his chair with Tsuyoshi at his hip.

Doing his best to not glare at the supposedly all powerful Shinigami, Fugaku looks at Tsuyoshi's face sternelly.

Seriously, only Tsuyoshi could possibly get into such an unexpected situation.

Looking back at the Shinigmi it did not seem an explanation was forthcoming, looking around the room the Hokages seemed to want him to take action how he saw fit. He did not look at the other clan heads.

Fugaku did not like demonstrating emotions with an audience, or in general, but this was his four year old with a sharingan, not to mention the fuckingShinigami, and so he would have too. There was no way he could take Tsuyoshi aside when he was, apparently, involved in this mess, so he forged on.

" Explain yourself Tsuyoshi. " He wanted Tsuyoshi to be okay but he also wanted some mother f ng answers!

Fugaku ,awkwardly, rubbed his child's back until he stopped hiccuping so much and felt comforted he was acting the same as always, a little clingy, very trusting (so cute ).

"Sooorry tou-sannn" Tsuyoshi was not crying anymore, just getting his breathing under order and so Fugaku sat back down, putting Tsuyoshi on the table in front of him, making it so the child had to turn to focus on anybody else.

Quietly, but not as soothingly as he thought he was being, he talked to Tsuyoshi. "What happened?"

Tsuyoshi whimpered and rubbed his aching eyes and head. "Not my fauuult..."

Ok, so it did not seem they would make much progress until Tsuyoshi deactivated his sharingan. He wanted to be mad at the child for being so difficult but he too remembered his first sharingan headache, as well as not knowing how to turn the eyes off.

Tsuyoshi's limbs wobbled when his daddy didn't make it better right away. "Does it hurt Tsuyoshi?"

As if saying 'of course it hurts!' Tsuyoshi nods emphatically and glares, like a proper Uchiha, at his parent.

Fugaku slowly reaches his big hands to the little temple. "Here?" He says putting the little hands in his temples. "Yes?"

Tsuyoshi nods more sedately. "Uhn"

"I see, and here?" The father puts his umbs over the child's closed lids.

Tsuyoshi shakes his head, and mumbles, sniffing. " My eyes are just really itchy, like when you cry lots, but more." He tries explaining to his tou-san.

"Hmmm. And what about here?" He takes his right hand to the steadily beating heart.

Tsuyoshi hiccups and nods yes. "Tight, feels bad." Fugaku hums and puts a hand on the child's hair, petting softly. "We can fix the eyes and smooth the headache right now but the rest will have to wait."

He knows he is ignoring everyone else. He knows he is acting unbecomingly of a clan head, and the elders would be having a fit, but this is his child and if there are three people he loves the most than those are his children. After all, no one can quite love like an Uchiha.

"Tsuyoshi, look at me." Fugaku waits for the tow red eyes to focus on his. " At some point tonight you felt really stressed or sad or threatened, correct?" Tsuyoshi wavers a little but nods, staring fixedly at his father's eyes. "I've told you about the sharingan before, I'm sure kaa-chan and Itachi have at least mentioned it before, yes?"

Tsuyoshi nods again, quite tired of this lesson, tou-san always takes soooooo long to say stuff. "Yeah, the sharingan is the pride of the Uchiha clan and it's really important to have it and Itachi got his really quick," he almost adds a bla bla bla, but catches it on time. "I knoow tou-san!" He pouts. "What does that have to with anything!?"

Fugaku gives his best warning look and Tsuyoshi just knows on the bottom of his heart that it means 'Tsuyoshi, if you roll your eyes at me I will make sure you regret it.'

Tsuyoshi makes sure to look very repentant and pay double attention when his boring tou-san starts speaking again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> latter I will edit this chap properly, if you see any errors tell me and it will probably be fixed.


	6. Chapter six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hullo peeps, as always, if you want to use this idea feel free. Send me the link and please mention this story.

The Shinigami sees the little monkey, he thinks it of no consequence, if his Master had wanted complete privacy he would have said so. Probably. Well, if need be he can fix it latter, nothing of great importance has been revealed yet, when the actually important talks begin he will ward the place.

Tsuyoshi continues being draped over the Shinigami.

Minato is getting healed by a medic as best as possible and if the child does not want Minato to die yet, and the man does not die from the deadly wounds, well that's just a coincidence.

-/-

Azuma is working inside the hollowed out mountain, guarding the civilians and children, helping as much as a chunnin can, when a little monkey appears out of the shadows and runs up to him.

As soon as he sees Hijii-kun, the little monkey, he immediately feels tense as fuck.

His father is not a very present parent but his busy father took a break the week after he became chunnin and spent the entire day telling him secrets and discussing shinobi life with him.

Hijii is a monkey Hiruzen does not use often, for some reason the little one doesn't grow and since he isn't very suited for battle, infiltration, information gathering or as a messager for long distances he is mostly used on a day to day basis for informing family of mundane things, basically a way to keep an active channel of communication with his family even though the ex-Hokage was so busy.

Hiruzen has not used Hijii since he retired, and he has never used Hijii when Azuma was working, maybe Azuma is being too twitchy about this but he thinks is strange his father would send him Hijii for an unimportant message right now.

With Hijii on his shoulder he moves to a more secluded part of the cave system, difficult, since it is so full of scared people.

As soon as he confirms it Azuma speaks. "We are alone, Hijii. What is the message?"

Hijii is uncharacteristically silent for a second. Azuma is vey worried, has his father died? Was he at the hospital? Missing? "Spill!" He hisses at Hijii.

The little redling complies. " Your father is in a delicate situation right now and so he could not tell me the message." The monkey looks at an impatient Azuma pointedly."He hand signaled me Commander, Death, Azuma, Proceed, Secret and Jutsu in that exact order, do you understand Azuma-chan?*" Hijii doesn't really understand but he gets the basics.

The monkey watches as Azuma's eyes and mouth slowly, comically, widen to unbelievable dimensions, it seems the boy understands. His job here is done, he pops out of existence with a nod.

Inside the next five minutes Azuma is home and searching quickly for the old scroll. 'where the fuck is it!' He takes a deep breath and tries to not panic, he has searched everywhere he could think of inside this room.

His father had told him the scroll would stay in his brother's room but he could not find it!

After a minute the chunnin goes to the old nursery attached to his father and mother's room, the one he and his brother used at some point in their life none of them remembers it, right now it has been empty for quite a while.

It's worth a shot, he already exhausted his brother's room anyways.

Azuma enters and starts searching the most obvious places, there aren't many but luckily he doesn't have to go to more extreme measures, he finally finds a familiar looking seal on the back of a photo of his brother and himself, (dirty as can be inside a just as dirty house, he remembers the dressing down and punishment they got for that, it had not been fun, but he also remembers the brotherhood between them two, he misses those times) the photo had been inside a frame and so it took Azuma a while to find it.

By the time Azuma has unsealed everything needed, (it was a inside a five layers seal with blood locks, chakra locks, word locks and shit, it took way too fucking long, in his humble opinion), and reread the final instructions, once upon a time his father had made him read all of it and state it back to him in intervals of months and irregularly just to make absolutely sure he understood it correctly, still, it was smart to make sure, yet again, that he knew what he was doing.

Azuma proceeds to mold the chakra and perform the hand seals, with a last deep breath he calls out " Summoning: Impure World Resurrection!" And stares, he is not gonna lie, very freaked out, at the trembling ceramic pot inside the ink seal.

The pot opens and the gore inside inflates and spills over the rim, it's sickening and smells horrible. It boils and the white pieces on bone make weird noises against the ceramic. Ok so, maybe, Azuma did something wrong. 'What the fuck does he do NOW!?'

Azuma backs away slowly but cannot stop watching the mess that starts getting out of the pot like a thick goo with chunks.

After a few minutes the goo seems to stick together in two separate lumps, one just as disgusting as the other. The two lumps tremble and starting rising up in a seemingly impossible way for something so gooey looking. It gets to a certain height and stops. As if peeking up the pace it, like a mud clone, takes the form of two people and when Azuma blinks and looks there are the first two Hokage are in front of him in their iconic armors, red and blue, long brown hair and white shaggy hair, one confused and one blank faced.

Tobirama looks around and at Azuma and sharply asks. "Who are you?" Narrowing his eyes.

Hashirama quickly pouts at his otouto. "Tobiraaama, don't speak to children like that! He'll get scared!"

Before Azuma can register it he is being embraced by the God of Shinobi.

Hashirama pets the poor boy on the back and rubs his cheek on the relatively dirty hair.

Tobirama glares at his brother. "And why would I care about the unknown shinobi's feelings, Anija? More relevant than that, why are your stupid self here?" His voice is low and threatening.

Hashirama starts to sweat under the heavy gaze. "Maa, otouto, I was worried, you see?"

Tobirama feels not even a bit forgiving at those words.

"Haha ha..."Hashirama rubs the back of his head and eye smiles.

Tobirama continues to glare.

Hashirama lifts up his hand apologetically. "Ok otouto, no need to glare so much, that will give you wrinkles Tobi! I was only trying to keep you safe."

"And how does that correlate to this mess exactly?"

"Well, you see, after we fought about this resurrection jutsu of yours I could almost sense that you would still finish developing and probably pass it on. I am your brother, Tobirama, I do know you." He gives Tobirama a meaningful stare.

"The moment you walked away from our fight I decided to keep a closer eye on your lab." Hashirama can feel the terrifying, if you were not used to it, flare of chakra from his younger brother as soon as he sounded the word 'eye'.

The God of shinobi lifts up his hand and glares for a second at his brother, telling him not to interrupt.

"Because I care about you, I found the scroll after you sealed it and read the explanation of the jutsu and what not, I thought it was very weird of you to prepare even the 'ingredients' to be used for this jutsu and so I decided that if you were to one day be summoned then I would ensure you would not be alone to face what ever it was.

But even more worrying was the mention of a Master of Death, I racked my memorie but we had never encountered anyone using that nickname, you had also never mentioned it before. I went so far as to search about it with Mito and we did not find anything at all.

I decided to give you time to tell me about it, even a little hint, but in case you did not I wanted you to have backup if you ever woke up in the future and had no one to turn to.

After that I had Mito help me prepare some material and we sealed it all back together and returned it to your lab."

Firstly, that rundown of events was greatly humbled, He didn't just leave the scroll with all his preparations laying around at his lab, that means Hashirama had to go to pretty extreme lengths to have done all that. He is very pissed, he feels like his special lab and privacy were violated but he also feels a little fond of his brother for being so protective.

By this point Tobirama wants to strangle and berate his brother at the same time. He settles for glaring and then scoffing at his anija.

At Hashirama knows he is mostly forgiven and smiles a little, warmly.

As one the ex-Hokages look at Azuma, who is watching all this like it is a comedy/horror from his place at the first Hokage's arms. Hashirama smiles brightly at him. He can't help but give a small grin back. After today his bad boy image will have suffered much.

"Hello again young shinobi! What has happened for you to have called for us?" He starts out the sentence enthusiastically but ends it at a more quiet note. Both he and Tobirama can feel the Kyuubi's chakra of course, the shinobi as well, but they can assume, by the lack of noise, that the battle has reached a stand point.

"Ugh.. Hello Hokages-sama." Azuma tries bowing but the first Hokage's hold doesn't let him, so it's just a weird like little movement. Embarrassed once again and at the end of an encouraging smile by Hashirama's part and a never abating glare by Tobirama he continues. "I'm Sarutobi Azuma and my father is the third Hokage, wh-"

"Ahhh, so you are Saru's child hun? Un, un" Hashirama says looking the teen up and down."How fortunate are we Tobirama!? We get to meet little Saru's son, and such a healthy and cute child too!" Azuma gets a happy rustling of hair by the first Hokage.

"Focus, anija! Continue Sarutobi."

Hashirama laughs and Azuma decides to just get all of this over with, it's just too weird."Right," throat clearing "I'm the Sarutobi Hiruzen's youngest son and when I became chunnin he entrusted me with the knowledge of a scroll given to him by Senju Tobirama shortly before his death." he says and looks at Tobirama as if looking for agreement.

Tobirama nods back.

"As you know the scroll had this jutsu and all the ingredients needed should it ever come a time a certain Master of Death appeared.

I don't actually know where and if the Master appeared, but earlier I received a message from my father trough a monkey summon used only for familial matters.

Trough Hijii father sent the words Commander, Death, Azuma, Proceed, Secret and Jutsu, judging by the circumstances and the words I could only come to the conclusion that the Comander/Master of Death has appeared and I, Azuma, should use the secret Jutsu that had to do with the Master of Death.

If I am wrong I apologize, but I think that when we find father we will find the Master of Death, and better sooner than latter, the village has just suffered an attack and is very vulnerable right now."

Tobirama's glare loses a little intensity as he thinks, it does not seem like the boy is lying, it deserves a trip to wherever Hiruzen is. What if Harry is actually here? Well, he can't lose such an opportunity. "Let's go."

Tobirama leaps out of the window and follows the biggest chakra signature, the kyuubi. There is a little discomfort in his body even after a few minutes since the completion of the jutsu, he is a bit annoyed that his jutsu is not as perfect as he wanted but at least it seems to have served its propose.

When they get near the bijuu he can sense little vestiges of Chakra going many directions, but he wasn't called one of the best trackers for nothing, he locks on Hiruzen's chakra, glad it is still so familiar to him, and shushins. Trusting Hashirama to follow and decide wether to bring along the kid or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Hijii calls Azuma '-chan' because babies are called '-chan- sometimes and Hijii met Azuma when he was still a baby, it's partially to annoy the boy and partially because he is very fond of the kid.
> 
> if you didn't notice, this happens at the same time as the last chapter.
> 
> there was a little error with the timeline of this chap but thanks to a reviewer it was fixed :)


	7. Chapter seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks very much for kudos, reviews and follows!  
> There are some parts of this chap that I didn't love but I don't have the time right now to change so I decided to post it anyways. Enjoy.

Fugaku clear his throat "Exactly, most of the clan has it as well. You know this as any other child but what most children, including you, do not understand is that the Sharingan needs to be activated differently from most blood line limits. It has an emotional trigger, necessarily."

Tsyoshi is looking at him seriously and trying to figure it out by himself, Fugaku lets him, children need to think things out to become better. It worked for Itachi, surely all children get smarter the same way.

Tsuyoshi finally comes to a conclusion and nods yes. "Okaaaaay? I think I get it. And how do you turn it off then?"

See? Fugaku is awesome at parenting.

"Normally, in cases of first use, the sharingan eventually turns itself off. If you had been scared for your life or something related to only yourself, it would fade once you were safe.

If you were feeling distress for someone else it would turn itself off once you saw that person to safety.

In your case it continues active even though you are safe and I'm safe so I can only deduce you are worried for someone else. Kaa-chan or Itachi perhaps?" He says perhaps only because Tsuyoshi loves his stuffed dragon toy like there is no tomorrow and with children so young you can never know for sure.

Tsuyoshi's face is blank for a second, thinking deeply. "I- no. I don't think so, Tou-san" He states slowly. 

Fugaku frown a little. "Who than?" He doesn't want to suggest Dragon the dragon, it's better not to influence Tsuyoshi's answer.

While the two are talking quietly everyone else is listening to it unashamedly.

Hiashi is a bit annoyed at how long this is taking, he knows for a fact that one strike to the tenketsu point up near the eyes would shut this kid's sharingan and finally get them some answers, with the right amount of pressure it wouldn't even hurt, just a little poke. 

At the Hyuuga district they teach children to direct and redirect their chakra for the byakugan this way. It is certainly quicker and more efficient than the Uchiha way, judging from what he is watching tonight. And what will Fugaku do with the name anyways? From what he can understand the child needs to be reassured said person is safe, how will Fugaku prove that inside this room without anyone entering?

It's been about ten minutes since Fugaku asked who and, from the frustrated expression on Tsuyoshi's face, who still massages his throbbing temples every few seconds, there won't be one soon.

Hiashi is about to suggest blocking the tenketsu up when he hears steps outside the door and turns to look at it, already on his feet, ready.

All the seasoned shinobi do a double take for what feels like thousandth time this evening. The first and second Hokages enter the room, followed by an Azuma that is trying very hard not to look freaked out.

The clan heads and Hokages notice the pale, cracked look of the former Hokages, and the dark eyes. 

They have kunais and shuriken ready, all are molding chakra to attack.

Fugaku is at his feet holding Tsuyoshi protectively on his left arm.

Amazingly the Shinigami sighs, that's right, the SHINIGAMI fucking SIGHS. 

The shinobi are seriously starting to doubt the veracity of the God. If it wasn't for the huge kyubii outside they may have tried to call it a bullshit.

A quiet "troublesome" can be heard in the relative silence.

Hashirama is the one to break the ice. "Maa, such familiar faces. It seem most of the initial clans are present huh? Such a nice outcome, that." He smiles lovingly at the people.

Tobirama has a frown.

Hiruzen sweat drops and smiles back, Hashirama-sama trully does not change. Everybody else just looks on. 

Tsume growls in annoyance, this is all taking too long! And what the fuck is all this shit! Is this a fucking impressive as fuck genjutsu? Because nothing makes sense! 

"Shut up, anija."

Hashirama laughs, with a little dark cloud forming gradually over his head. "Tobirama, don't say that to your nii-chan who loves you." Looking dramatically distressed at the white haired male.

A vein throbs on Tobirama's head. "You were the one to mess up my jutsu and stick your nose in." He mutters glaring at the long haired baka. "Stupid brother."

"Haha." Hashirama rubs behind his head, seeming even more depressed.

Looking pointedly but adorably pleading at Hiruzen. Hashirama speaks. " So? Why did you call us Saru?" And because he is so happy to see his brother's student old he adds, lightly. "Your son is so cute and funny, little Saru. Oh! You have laugh lines, that's so fortunate! How old are you now?! You were just this big, what feels like yesterday!" He signals with his hand how big.

Tobirama mutters. "It's not like he grew much more than that anija."

Hashirama plows on. "You are very much alive and well, does that mean this is the first bad patch for konoha since Tobirama died? When did you die otouto? I believe the first big war yes? You don't look much older, but well, with you we never really know down? Such a sneaky child you are. And what ab-"

"Shut up!" Tobirama says forcibly and Hashirama gets depressed in the curve of half a second.

Tobirama almost snorts at this, if he were one to smile make he would. Nobody will ever know.

The shinobi look at Hashirama. They really thought the God of shinobi would be different. 

Hiruzen stands up and approaches the dead Hokages, putting the other shinobi in the room more at ease with how calm he looks doing it, it seems the comment that Hiruzen called them is not a lie. "Hello Hashirama-sama, Tobirama-sensei. Long time no see." He says giving them a fond smile. "I had doubts about this jutsu."

Tobirama has to contain himself to not roll his eyes (and pet the old man in the head, the stupid monkey still looks as childish and tiny as ever, but he can also see the much more guarded instance and the fake calm mask.) "Saru," Hiruzen looks at him. "Why do you have a Shinigami in this tower?" He raises an eyebrow, straight to the point. He really thinks the child in the room is the reincarnation of Harry, but even it being pretty obvious, what with the protective Shini-san in the room, he will not decide on it until he has his solid proof. Of course he noticed the kid, what kind of ninja do you think he is? 

The second Hokage makes sure to not look around the room plainly, giving the impression he is ignoring the others and putting them no more or less at ease, which is what you can expect in a room filled with experienced, high strung, shinobi in an unlikely situation.

"That is a bit of a long story sensei, but Shinigami-sama has been calling the child Master of Death for a while now. I thought it best to call you." He says honestly and straightforwardly, he knows that is the best strategy when involving Tobirama. He had missed his teacher imensively but he will tell the man latter on. " His name is Uchiha Tsuyoshi." Sarutobi gives a rub to his beard, longing for his pipe. He makes sure to look calmly at Azuma, to reassure him he did alright, to calm down.

As soon as Hiruzen points out the child Tobirama looks at the little one openly. Black hair, pale skin, red eyes staring at him like they never saw anything like it. He smirks, that's not a normal reaction. The chances of that child being Harry reincarnated are pretty damn high.

Slowly he gets closer to both Uchiha. Fugaku moves away instinctively.

"Relax Uchiha-san, I just have to show the child something. Besides, " he says flippantly. "If I was of any danger to him the Shinigami would protect him." Not to mention I could have killed anyone in this room already, including the kid.

They don't ask how the Hokages and Azuma got past the anbu guarding the room, they do not want to figure out if they beat everyone of them or slipped through the best security they have so smoothly. They are already freaked out enough.

Fugaku continues glaring at Tobirama with his midnight black eyes, ready to take his child the hell out of there. Then Tsuyoshi moves a little, as if wanting to reach out to Tobirama but not being sure of it.

Tobirama's smirk softens to a smile. "Hey kiddo,"

Hashirama is gapping, his brother almost never acts so softly, not since Itama and Kawarama. 

Sometime he would soften for Tsuna or him, once or twice for his gennin, but never for an unknown child, much less in public. 

Hiruzen is startled, 'what if the Jutsu was not such a success and changed their personalities? Or something else even, that would not be safe at all.' his shinobi pick up on it. 

Tobirama stands a meter or so away from the child, still staring at him with obvious wonder. "What's your name?" Encouraging the child with the soft voice.

Tauyoshi takes a slow breath trough his mouth. " Tsuyoshi, Uchiha Tsuyoshi." He lifts up four fingers. "I am four. How about you?" Giving a shy smile, still looking particularly thrusting and awed by the man.

Tobirama hums and looks at the child lovingly. "I'm Tobirama, 26."

Tsuyoshi seems a little surprised at that, for no reason anyone can understand. "Not 29?"

Tobirama smile turns a little sad. "No darling, I didn't get that far. Do you feel like you know me?"

Fugaku wants to take his child away and say that 'of course he doesn't! He was born after you died! And doesn't know history at all!' But he knows the look on his son's face, it looks like when Mikoto and Itachi saw Tsuyoshi and Sasuke for the first time. Like love. So he stays put, and waits to see where this goes. He is surprised at the other people's patience, his is thinning.

Tsuyoshi startles. "I, I. You feel special. Like, really special?"

Tobirama hums. "That's not wrong, but do you remember anything else, this maybe?" He losses up his armor and clothing to show the child a birthmark that looks like a deer on his ribs. "What do you think of it Tsuyoshi-kun?"

The child looks at it like he is lost in thought. "It's missing half of it. Lonely..." He whispers like its a precious secret but everyone in the room listens.

Unbeknownst to some, however, Nara Shikaku is surprised as fuck! And something so weird doesn't happen often so he thinks even Inoichi will agree with him that he deserves a few sake bottles and cigarettes for not choking on his own spit in surprise. He has seen a birth mark exactly the same as the second Hokage's before. In his son's back.

He needs more information. He feels a tap to his arm and knows his friends have noticed it. He doesn't tap back, signaling he will deal with it, no help needed.

Tobirama hums again. "Yes, terribly so, are you Tsuyoshi-kun? " 

With Tobirama's hum Tsuyoshi seems to calm further and his eyes go black again.

Tsuyoshi is feeling pretty good right now, his eyes don't itch as much and he is starting to feel sleepy again. This stranger is special, he thrust him like he thrusts Onii-chan, like love, but the familiar aspect of the relationship is missing. He feels a little shy as he gives a nod to himself and pulls his sleeping pant's leg a little bit up. Over his knee is a triangle with a circle and a line inside it, bellow it the words 'Always and forever.' In English, therefore unreadable to everyone but Tobirama. Even Tsuyoshi cannot read it.

Tobirama, the most serious and blank faced Hokage of all time takes a deep breath in like he has been waiting for that fresh air for q month and Hashirama senses a weird vibe from his brother's back. The God of Hokage is so fucking freaked out he drops his normal 'happy go lucky' vibe and shushins a little ahead of his little brother, between the child and Tobirama. The only reason he does not start retreating is because Tobirama looks as shocked as he feels, well, his otouto is subtle with his shock, but it's very noticeable in a room full of ninja, but not in a 'I can't move I'm so scared way' more like 'I'm Tobirama and I don't know how to express myself way'. In this new position he can see Tobirama's face better and he backs to the side a little, Tobirama is weird but not in distress. He doesn't understand but he will provide his support anyways.

Tobirama notices the movement in the room but he can feel his brother and so he forces himself not to react. He almost took Harry from the adult Uchiha and moved away from Hashirama, as if he were a threat. His anija deserves at least this much trust from him.

When his anija steps aside, Tobirama, or should he think of himself as Draco by now? Being this close to Harry, he feels off kilter, having past the last 26 years missing this person. He gives the reincarnation of his beloved a little fragile smile.

Hashirama and Hiruzen's eyes bug out of their sockets. 

Tobirama closes the distance to the little adorable kid and, giving a look at the parent moves his hands to take Tauyoshi. Fugaku moves a step back and denies him, Uchiha-glaring at him.

Tobirama Malfoy-glares right back and steps forward.

Fugaku steps around the table, with his nose up and back straight.

Tobirama has a vein pulsing is his forehead.

Everybody in the room watches and just fucking lose it. Because what the actual fuck?! Is this for reals? A loose clothed, zombie Senju Tobirama in a moving glaring contest with Uchiha-I-have-a-stick-up-my-ass-Fugaku with a sighing Shinigami, all the clan heads, and all past and present Hokage watching?! Are they fucking high? Is this genjutsu?!!

It seems some people thought the same and a couple of Kai's are heard across the room(Azuma and Tsume), the rest reasoned out this could not be a genjutsu but it is still so very weird they do not know how to even-

After they go around the room once Fugaku ups the glare, some had thought it impossible, and Tobirama speaks. "Give me the kid Uchiha. -San." He adds the san as so not to hurt Tsuyoshi's feelings.

"Why should I?"

"Because he clearly wants to be picked up by me and I want to hold him." Rolling his eyes is beneath him, hold the urge Malfoy.

"Children are not the best judges of character, and famously Uchiha hating, supposedly dead ex-Hokages don't get to hold the Uchiha head's son. And so I repeat, why should I expose my son to you?"

Tobirama stares at the man in front of him and decides this situation must seem very unusual if you haven't been thinking about it for a really long time. Tobirama is not the most socially aware person but even he can sense the confusion, bewilderment and tension in the room. "I'll admit I haven't handled that situation with caution. What do you know about reincarnation?"


	8. Chapter eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I had some real life stuff to do and lost a little of my drive. This was supposed to be like 10k words and it developed into something bigger so maybe it will take some time to update but I hope people enjoy it anyways :)

Chapter 7

When Tobirama was seven he starts preparing to go support his clan, properly, for the first time, and so Batsuma takes him to the armory. 

As a respectful leader his father greets the guards at the door with a noble nod and the two bow back, opening the doors readily. As the perfect son Tobirama nods at them as well, with only a slight hint of lowering his head. He enters without checking the guard's reaction's as it is expected of someone of his status in the clan.

He has been inside this room two or three times in his life, he has an armor, a practice katana and a few shuriken and kunai, most of them provided to him so he never has much reason or permission to come her, besides, this time it's different, it's important. His father is bringing him today to pick out a proper katana, not a discarded old one that was sent to the training grounds, a katana just for him, used for the first time by him, one he will keep till he cannot and will be mended until he dies by its side or it shatter beside him.

Between all the brothers Tobirama shows the most promise with a katana and even perfect Hashirama is worse than him. Between the brothers Tobirama and Itama are the only ones that chose it as their primary weapon and since Tobirama is the elder his father will pass down the Senju style to him personally.

It doesn't matter that father had no other choice, Itama being too little and Hashirama refusing to learn it, what matters is that Tobirama will make him proud, will bear the style with grace and dignity in battle. Batsuma has been teaching him for two and a half years, every week he takes at least three days to teach him personally for about two hours, and the rest of the days Tobirama has two kenjutsu teachers, all the free time he has had since he uses it for becoming the best swordsman.

He is not a master, not yet. This week or month he will make his debut in battle and he will show everyone how worthy of the sword that is picked for him he is. He is worthy of his clan. He is worthy of his family. And he is worthy of his katana. He will show it to all of them.

The Senju don't make their own katana nor most of their weapons, mostly they mend them and make kunai and shuriken on a hurry and so his sword will be picked by his father from all the pre made katana in the armory, bought from a couple of smith clans protected by the Senju a few km west (the opposite way to the Uchiha).

They walk, Tobirama slightly behind Batsuma, trough all the weapons and there is no one else inside, it's a irritatingly warm season and it makes Tobirama sweat. 

Slowly they make their way around the corridors of weapons and Batsuma does not stop once. Tobirama is nervous but doesn't show it, he was told usually the teacher would ask the student things like their preferences and if they liked any weapon they saw and so on. But he knows father will pick him the perfect sword and he keeps his jaw up and eyes ahead, following loyally.

The steps echoing on the woods are annoying and the warmth is suffocating. Batsuma keeps on walking.

Tobirama knows this room is not so big but it takes an eternity for his father to take a last step and stop suddenly. As the soldier he is Tobirama stops at the perfect distance and looks as his father turns his body to the right and studies a standard looking katana encased in a normal looking black sheath, it has red rope tied to the handle, meant for tying it to an obi.

Tobirama hates it on first sight, he doesn't really love the color red (he loathes it) and the black is just very ordinary. If he could choose he would want a white, silver, green or blue sheath. He knows those aren't the most fitting colors for the sword of a covert ops ninja but it would fit him. And that is the ideal katana isn't it? That would be the ideal weapon, one you love and trust and take care of. One you like to hold and feel a connection to. His teachers had told him that and it made sense to him.

He prays in his head, to a God he doesn't name or believe, and asks: "Please, not this one."

It all happens in less than a second, Batsuma doesn't even look at him when he reaches for the boring sword and picks it up. Tobirama rationalizes that his father is only testing the weight and such, but by his experience, he knows his father is a man of only one decision and he doubts it.

Almost as if some greater being hates him his father releases the blade and tests it once, twice, in the air, shafts it, and hands it to Tobirama with a rare little approving turn of lips, like a great honor. Two handed and with and air of grace his father looks him in the eyes and waits for him to pick it up.

With his features blank and polite he reaches for it and bows deeply as he takes it. It may not be the blade he would have chosen, but he is not a master, his father is, and Tobirama trusts his family absolutely. Besides, he has to admit it is the right length and the weight is pretty good, he hopes they will work well together.

-/-

The room is very unsettled at this point and Tobirama takes initiative before it unravels to very angry people. "Right. " he can see that Harry won't be in his arms until he explains himself a little more, 'be reasonable' he tells himself. And so he turns to Shini-San. "Shini-san, seal it all up please. There are twelve anbu in and around the room, wipe them." 

Shin doesn't raise a mocking eyebrow for the respect he has for Draco but he wants to roll his eyes as if saying, 'really? I know how to seal a room Draco, do keep your comments to yourself.'

Tobirama can sense in the anbu's chakra their surprise but Tobirama is, after all, the best sensor of his generation, he doesn't just miss a person for no good reason.

Hashirama raises a brow with a questioning 'hum' sound but does nothing, its Tobirama, he never made sense on a good day and God knows what type of day this is, cause Hashirama is still classifying it.

The white haired male takes a deap breath and nods gently at the Shinigami. The Shinigami hasn't really moved and he continues to sit in his chair. 

The shinobi in the room are the elite of this world and they are not arrogant but they think they are good enough to to keep track of their targets trough a simple conversation, only at this point do they notice they ignored the Shinigami for a bit, they are used to noticing even the anbu and they all are back to the high strung because of this lapse.

Tobirama can see Hiruzen taking in the air to question him and he decides to let him, he gives a last visual check on the sleepy toddler and feels comforted that the child is resting on the Uchiha's shoulder but still looking at him patiently. So patiently, it gives him peace to know Harry is so near. He thought he missed him but being so close makes him want to wrap the child up and cuddle in a warm and fluffy bed and just cuddle forever. He is so glad the Yamanaka mind reading doesn't work that well.

"I like a good suspense as anyone would but can't you give this people a cup of tea and explain yourself, sensei? They are not quite so used to your unique brand of quiet" Hiruzen smiles at Tobirama and Tobirama checks on his so very frail looking student. Can see the muscle beneath the clothes and the added wisdom and burden on him. The second Hokage can't say he is happy with the weight the Saru seems to hold but he is happy that little kid got to be a petit old man that seems okish.

"Maybe they should get used to it, I do seem to come back from the dead just to confuse you so why not the next generation?" You can only see the twinkle in those redish yes if you have the right background but Tobirama is actually content he is so brilliant he invented a 'zombie jutsu', he is pretty awesome.

Hiruzen snorts out a laught. "If I had any doubt you were the real Tobirama it ended with your drama filled entrance. Do you always have to be so showy sensei? I would have thought a few years in the afterlife would have tempered you." Actually Hiruzen thinks natural white hair may have something to do with showy characteristics, he has been scarred by sensei, Sakumo and Jiraya forever.

"You just wish you were as mysterious and cool as me little saru. "

It's such a perfect deadpan Hiruzen laughs out loud and gets up for a much awaited hug from his self sacrificing sensei, he deserves this and his ninja can wait a few more second, if he were even an year younger he may have cried but he holds it in like one of the legendary 'blank faced Hokage's students. To say Tobirama hugs him is too strong a word but the undead-dead subtly rubs his back once and let's him hold on a few seconds, that is more than most ever got. Hiruzen is pretty happy with the reunion, even if the circumstances are every bit as problematic and complicated as whenever his old sensei is involved, voluntarily, in something. He can pretend his sensei isn't doing this to make the others think him unthreatening and probably wouldn't have joked with him otherwise.

"Get yourself together chibi, you are an embarrassment" Tobirama says monotone, but quietly. Hiruzen decides it's his affectionate tone not his slight disapproval tone or embarrassed tone, they are all so similar really.

"It's about a few decades past the time you had the right to tease me sensei. I've been the one doing the teasing for way too long to be bothered anymore. Besides, I'm almost seventy, I would say each centimeter you have on me gave me three extra years of life so it's fine by me."

"Still awful conversationalist I notice." Tobirama raises an eyebrow. 

Hiruzen snickers back." Still a oblivious weirdo, I notice." He has to keep from smiling so hard his flesh rips, it's so good to see his sensei. He feels safer than he can even remember and his sensei is just as deadpan and weird as he remembers him and now he can actually talk to him with some sort of equality, it feels amazing getting to know his precious teacher in a new light, but so recognizable and comforting.

The first Hokage is smiling at the sidelines. The table listens and can't help but feel comforted, they all trust their ex-Hokage to some deep levels, at least with the safety of the public and village so they know there is a very good chance this people don't represent a threat. (Or the ex-Hokage is oblivious to it) They reserve their right to judge individually.

Fugaku clears his throat. "What does reincarnation have to do with anything, Senju?" He says Senju mildly as not to stir any pots but his voice is very annoyed, his son very soft and vulnerable.

The Inuzuka lady is containing herself not to speak at all, not to get mixed up in all this mess anymore than necessary, or else she would have backed that statement up.

Hyuuga Hiashi uses this gap. "I understand this is an unusual situation Hokages-sama, but I would like to remind you that the village is in the middle of a crisis and we should focus on business right now." Never has Hiashi been as unpolitical as this at meetings, but he is tired of all this stalling and general dismissiveness of the clan heads, they deserve an explanation and he wants it promptly.

Tobirama's gaze is as laser sharp as ever but appears vaguely bored to many of the observers.

Hashirama goes to his brother and squeezes his shoulder, supporting him in his silence but urging him to do something and not give up on the clueless people. It is disheartening to remember how many times Tobirama just gave up on talking to people that didn't matter or seemed useless to him.

Tobirama is awful at public speaking, honestly why the fuck had he been Hokage?! Right. His brother is an idiot. He flicks the idiot's head with his hand. He stares at the room as Hashirama makes a wounded sound, drama queen.

.  
.  
.

Hiruzen starts laughing and snickering behind him.

Tobirama turns and glares. 

Hiruzen lifts his hand in peace but doesn't stop trembling in laughter, his mouth twitching. By his side Hashirama's lips start wiggling too.

Tobirama ups the glares and flicks them both on the forehead. 'Honestly, so improper.'

It only causes them to puff out laughter harder behind their trembling lips.

The room sweat drops. Tsuyoshi is on the verge of sleeping but a cute, sleepy giggle scape his slightly drooling lips.

Tobirama kicks the two idiots in the gut, 'Harry is so damn cute this time !', and they dodge, each gets a swift leg sweep in return, which, of course, they both dodge. It breaks the awkward wiggling and puffing fest and Hashirama mimes zipping up his lips with a fucking stupid smile on his face.

A vein throbs in Fugaku's forehead.

Tobirama resolutely does not sigh, he turns and starts speaking, if only because if he does not the two silly adult children will embarrass him more. "Since it's apparently up to me to introduce you to this" his eyes travel to the Shingami. It nods like it's obvious. Draco has the urge to kick him in the head, nothing about this is obvious and he doesn't appreciate being put on the spot. Tobirama is sure he has an annoying smirk behind the mask. The god knows how much Draco dislikes interacting with most people.

Tobirama suppresses the urge to shake his head at all of this and take Harry away and kiss all his little toes and make him safe and happy, give him a perfect life, for him to be the protected not protector.

"Firstly, let's address my reincarnation comment. Like many subjects reincarnation is a rumor and legend based belief. Basically, it is unreliable information. It's made even more unreliable because there are different types of reincarnation theories that were spread around and humans like to narrow information about a topic until they arrive to an explanation they can accept, thus farther distorting any possibly reliable information.

As ninja you all must have learnt to accept that information is almost always wrong and the bigger the number of people involved in retelling this information, the bigger the chance of error. It's all very basic. Still, to do your job you have to believe some of the information you have or you can never make a decision."

Tobirama ends this abruptly and looks at the room fully expecting that they all understood everything and took the right assumptions and so he fully expects Fugaku, and the others, to at least make the connection between Tsyoshi, Tobirama and reincarnation.

He takes a step closer to Fugaku and extends his arms for Tsuyoshi.

Fugaku does not hand his kid to the weirdo in front of him. Obviously, why should he? "How does that explain anything, Senju? Yes, we all understand the dangers of relying on information that is never 100% accurate. That does not explain why you think I should give you access to my son.

Ok, maybe Tobirama expected too much of them, he will have to spell it out. "Both me and Uchiha Tsuyoshi are reincarnated souls." Fugaku stays annoyingly flat faced and Tobirama expands on it. "How else do you think a child would recognize a deceased adult he has no connections to?"

Fugaku can understand that, he had indeed thought of this with the reincarnation comment but it doesn't seems tangible to him and he feels no need to give Tobirama access to Tsuyoshi. "Please elaborate Senju Tobirama, a simple explanation and no proof makes your tales mostly unbelievable."

The other shinobi can help but agree to the statement, even Shikaku, Minato and Hiruzn, that all believe in this to some considerable degree want more explanation.

Tobirama seethes, fucking stupid annoying people. " As I've stated earlier, it's hard to prove an information truthful but I can better prove this to all of you if you hand me Tsuyoshi, I promise I mean him no harm at all."

"As a father and clan head I cannot permit a famously Uchiha hating person to be so close to an Uchiha defenseless child." Ok, maybe he is stretching his luck a little but he doesn't feel like parting with Tsuyoshi and he has a feeling Tobirama could snatch Teyoshi before he could even notice it.

"Uchiha hate...?" he says looking at Fugaku and then the room, he wants to reassure himself of Harry/Tsuyohi, actually holding would be a nice way to do that, and he needs touch to bring Harry out anyways, he knows by now that only Harry will shed light on this mess. It would probably defuse some of the tension with all the bloodline limit people in the room if he tried to explain himself? He I'll see how it goes, if it takes too long he will just take the sleeping Tsuyoshi and proceed however he wants. " some people started thinking I hated blood line limits after Konoha was built, it seems you all think so. "He can tell they do think so. "That's not very accurate.

Yes, I did hate the Uchiha for a long time but it's not because of the sharingan in it self, it's because they constructed killer genjutsus I always fell in and I was hated by my own clan for having 'Uchiha eyes' that mentality inside my clan and in time of clan war made me blindly hate all things Uchiha until I developed enough to and learned enough to set myself right." 

He extends his posture as if to take Tsuyoshi and Fugaku absolutely does not give. Tobirama growls low on his throat and starts another Godman mologue, will this never stop? Has it not being Hokage enough of trying to convince people, that don't like being reasoned with, on something they don't want to be swayed in?

Tobirama huffs just the slightest bit. " What will it take to convince you." It's not really a question, he knows a full explanation will probably do but sharing childhood stories is not his favorite activity.

"A believable, honest and complete explanation of why you are here, when you are supposedly dead. How that came to be. Why you have an interest in my child. Why a Shinigami is involved. 

Those answers would be appreciated but no promises." Fugaku speaks seriously and straight forward, maybe too tired, or annoyed, for lies at this point. He knows only Tobirama, and maybe Hashirama, is stoping the hire haired male from taking Tsuyoshi by force, but damn if he won't take advantage of that.

The other leaf ninja command him for that. In their minds, of course.

Tobirama huffs. "Not all of that is for me to explain and some of that is not for you to know. How me and Brother are here are none of your business, as you would handle the knowledge badly it has been erased since the moment we were sumoned and will never be repeated." A lie but he doubts Hiruzen or Asuma will correct him." As for why, I'm here because reincarnation is more complicated than people realize. 

Your son is involved in all this mess, the same way I am, I hope we will get to the point you understand enough of it to cooperate, but right now I need to make sure that your son is safe, healthy and the right person and I can only do that by checking him myself." And he is the only one with actual answers so...

He again gets closer to Fugaku and gestures, minimally, for Tsuyoshi, who is practically sleeping he doesn't even react. Tobirama can feel it is chakra exhaustion and phish all exhaustion.

Tobirama actually sighs now. "For fucks sake, I'm not an Uchiha hater or bloodline hater!" He takes a deep breath and feels slightly conforted by Hashirama squeezing his shoulder. 

"Start from the beginning otouto, they will understand properly if taught properly." Nothing will be solved by you taking the child forcefully.

Hashirama being his annoying Anija self, as always, is probably correct, but no less irritating.

"Follow the logic Uchiha-san.

One day the Senju head marries a beautiful light haired, purple eyed beauty from a civilian background. They were in love.

At the time it wasn't the most common of things and the clansmen were worried about her bloodline, it being weak. About an year and a half latter they have a healthy son for their firstborn. 

The clan is very happy. The child seems to resemble the father in built, healthy and strong, and the mother in personality, a very calm and happy baby. Again, the people of the clan are happy, they see it as a good omen and they start accepting their lady more.

The couple have another child about two years later, it's sad it took them a while to have another but the clan is hopeful trough out their lady's pregnancy. When the birth comes, unexpectedly early, people gather outside the main house wishing for another healthy boy that will, latter on, potentially lead the clan to prosperity. " Everyone knows that in war one or two brothers will be lost, better for the clan head to have many strong sons. He doesn't say.

Tobirama looks at these people and he hates he is telling them this but at the same time he is glad Harry is not here yet, the child is also un hearing of this, at least he can say all this and gain a little more credibility for when he and Harry will need for Harry's plan. He doesn't know the details but he can speculate from past conversations, the ones he remembers, with the idiot he loves so much. Hopefully it will work better than their last one.

"Unfortunately the new child is weak and sickly, the organs malformed and failing. The clan has good healers and they work on him but It almost dies a couple of times and, as it is custom, people tell the mother and father to put him down before he becomes a burden. End his suffering. 

The mother may not be of a shinobi family but she is used to the custom and readily agrees to it. As the woman she was she adds a condition: she wants the child to have one more chance. She convinces her husband to promise her, if the child gets stronger in the next two weeks they will keep him for another year and see how it goes.

When the clan head agrees he is certain the baby won't get any better, it has been alive and healed constantly for three weeks and it's still as weak as ever. The two weeks pass, the healers check the baby over again, and declare him almost healthy. Nobody really knows how he did it and are conflicted if it will last. 

The knowledge of the one year period of test is what makes most of the clansmen not question the parents. 

During that year the child doesn't leave the house once. People think it is too fragile to and it gives them certainty about his approaching death."

He takes another breath, a not too deep one, no one should notice how much he hates this story, almost every reincarnation of his he ended up hated by his pears. This time he was hated as soon as they saw him, he didn't even have a chance.

"When the baby is checked over and cleared by the healers it is finally introduced to the population the rumors are wide spread and they all expand their neck to try and see the kid. Eventually they all see its red eyes and having already felt disconnected of the child rumors spread, they already have bad memories connected to red eyes and it spreads fast. After a week it's well known that Tobirama, son of Batsuma and a civilian is a bad omen child, marked with red demon eyes, many believe, to predict the Uchiha winning the war against the Senju."

Tobirama takes a tired breath. " do you understand? It's not that I hated the blood line or even the Uchiha people. I was told, from before I even knew my own name, that I was an Uchiha sent devil that would destroy the Senju from inside. That I had weak body so as to deceive people into pity. And so on."

Tobirama tried to be the perfect Senju so as to prove his loyalty but the more powerful he became, the stronger and more bizarre the rumors got.

By the time he was seven and had two other normal brothers, he had avoided any reflective services all his life so as not to see the horrible red eyes of doom. He ended up hating the color red with a vengeance. 

"And so you can maybe understand that I hated the Uchiha mainly by indoctrination and because of them I was an outsider in my own clan. I had never seen one but I knew they were to blame for many of my problems, and most importantly: the clan hated them and so I followed and did that as well."

Fugaku narrows his eyes even more, like he thought Tobirama was explaining this for the hell of it.

"That's a nice sob story Senju but I don't see what your childhood has to do with your actions as Hokage and one of the most influential people in this village, in your time. Your behaviors toward the Uchiha persist to influence people in the village till today, I don't see why I should forgive and forget such damming behavior to my clan because your mentality hasn't changed since you were seven years old ! 

Many of the first in konoha lived through the same indoctrination but were able to grow and mature out of it, you as Hokage should have been impartial and an example. Instead you turned much of the village against us, both by reputation and by the police force. Put us in a inescapable position.

To this day we cannot abandon the police force, because of your laws. We cannot change the laws, because of the village and clan's mentality. We cannot add people to the police force for the same reasons and we still suffer the backlash of Madara, again, a prejudice to my clan that was encouraged by your time as Hokage. "

When I was seven I was told to never consider other shinobi as fellow human outside the clan, does that mean I internalized it and refused to evolve? Of course not! I tried to learn from it but not blindly follow the previous generation. So no, you can't hold my child, because I don't feel he would be safe with you. Fugaku didn't add. He had already said too much in front of the other clan heads, it will come back to bite him latter, he is certain.

Tobirama is this fucking close to directing his chakra outward and begin intimidating this useless piece of shit. A bit of chakra leaks out of him and Hashirama is right by his side, leaking chakra too. Telling him he is not alone, he doesn't need to be this angry, anija always gets what he wants and he is right there supporting Tobirama in this, it may be childish but that makes him calmer. 

"Uchiha-San, I see you believe the rumors about my brother but I assure you, it is not based on the truth and it surged because of many unfortunate situations. But alas, as you believe that, you must also believe that I was one of the loudest supporters of the Uchiha in Konoha in my time, and I promise you, my otouto would never hurt Tsuyoshi-kun. If it calms you I can promise my protection to him.

Let's stop this foolishness and grant my brother something he has been waiting for a very long time shall we?"

Tobirama looks at Hashirama, with what Hashirama labels his surprised face, how did Hashirama become capable of such politics? Immersed in the past he remembers such a rash and childish Hashirama that the brother in front of him seems surreal. Well, that just another mystery about the man.

Fugaku considers it for a moment. 

"Fuck you Uchiha! I would never hurt that child! I've built Knoha for him! I would rather chop off my arm than hurt, actually, I have chopped off my arm for him so give me that child right the fuck now or you will finally understand you are in over your fucking head!" Okay, that escalated a bit, but spare him some, his patience has been worn too thin.

That's seems to be the wrong thing to say because Fugaku retreats back. 

The window is closed and so is the door, there is also no way Fugaku can scape two of the best shinobi that ever lived. He is good, but he isn't that good.

There is a vein popping in Tobirama's forehead, he prepares, in less than a millisecond, to snatch the dozy child. 

Hashirama holds him back by the hand still on his shoulder. He glares back and pointedly does not release any more chakra. This is his brother who never did him much bad, Tobirama can trust his judgment. He waits for his brother to speak and Hashirama does.

"You could snatch that child from his fathers arms easily Tobirama, you could kill everyone in this room, me included, if you wanted. Honestly aside from me and maybe the Shinigami, they are all amateurs compared to you. Little Saru seems to have grown but we both know that even all of them together would probably die before they could even form a justsu.

They don't understand. They won't understand if you don't explain, from the beginning, all the way to the end, patiently."

"I don't have anymore patience, I've explained enough." Even though he says that he doesn't move. 

Shikaku interrupts, firm but calm. " I understood, Nidaime Hokage-sama, at least some of it. I could explain if you would like."

Hashirama nods enthusiastically and Tobirama stares unblinkingly at Tsuyoshi for a few seconds. The little one nods his head off of the big shoulder and it falls a little, a mockery of a nod. Tobirama nods, this close to just forcibly taking Tsuyoshi, he will give the Nara five minutes, not a second more.

Shikaku nods and starts talking like a debrief. He knows he is well respected for his deduction skills and all these shinobi have been under his command at some point, he thinks most, if not all, of them will trust he is trustworthy in this.

"Well, from the story and assuming it truthful. Which I believe it is. We can already establish that we know too little about our past Hokages, there is no mention of Tobirama Senju being anything but a well loved and respected member of the Senju clan.

It's true that most children in the clan wars were indoctrinated to believe their rival clans something undoubtedly evil, even more so in clans with long histories of rivalry, such as the Uchiha and Senju. 

Theoretically a child with such a distinct feature of their enemies would probably be killed. Even if proven the feature had nothing to do with the Uvhiha, a child with red eyes in the Senju clan would be comparative to a a child resembling the Tsuchikage, with the Tsuchikage's bloodline and name being born to Monato right now. 

We've evolved since the clan wars, we consider our enemies people and even though we are exposed to enough to violence to start hating them we really have mellowed out from how it was.

From what I have read even wearing blue in the Nara clan, we were rivals to the Yuki clan, in that time was considered being a spy and such."

Making sure to look at them all, like he always does relaying information, he continues.

"Hypothetically, rumors having been spread and Tobirama being in a position in which he could only be disposed of with he clan heads approval many people would have approached the clan head to inquire of it but as soon as they were shot down, the loyalty to their leader would give Tobirama some protection.

Even so, it is a no win situation. If such a child was bad at the ninja arts, it would be taken as proof of him weakening the clan and demonstrative of his fragile loyalty. If he was mediocre he would probably be bullied and ignored to the point of isolation and that would be taken as proof of his shiftiness and, again, lack of loyalty and camaraderie. If the child exceeded expectations he would be considered unnatural and fake, due to his previous illness, probably would be isolated even without interference from his elders and people would start to fear his potential, increasing the rumors of his weirdness."

Tsume interrupts. "Sure, that could happen but wouldn't the child eventually be assimilated if he wasn't killed? Even outcasts get accepted if proven useful."

"Exactly, and that's a mentality that makes hopeful outcasts to be the most hardworking and dedicated of children. If they do not abandon this mentality they often tend to jump into opportunities too recklessly and end being killed, at least shinobi ones.

The ones that don't die end up being eventually accepted but even so, most of them tend to turn into one track minded people. By the time they are accepted they have trained their mind to achieve certain goals by all means and in this case such goal, to this Senju, would be winning all battles with the Uchiha, even after achieving the initial goal of acceptance it's likely that person is not even capable of connecting normally with people and that one track mentality doesn't just vanish over night. "

He turns to look at Fugaku. "I think that is what Nidaime Hokage-sama was talking about, not the period characteristic mentality but the personal one. Also, I think it unlikely Hokage-Sama will do something nefarious to Tsuyoshi-kun."

He has worked closely with Fugaku in the last war, it just ended and their trust in each other is not complete but it's habit. They depended on each nother and made most of the strategies in tandem. He respects Fugaku's mind, he thinks the Uchiha respects him too.

Shikaku looks at Tobirama. The ex-Hokage stays still but his statuesque face looks on to Fugaku, waiting his verdict. Shikaku can't tell if all his assumptions were correct, Tobirama shows nothing on his body language, it is a constant since he entered the room. But he feels he was right anyways.

Tobirama takes a tired breath in but his face and posture are a perfect polite blank.

Before anyone can think to stop him again he has sped up to Fugaku, taken the boy and sped up to his brother's side again.

It is so quick Fugaku startles at the loss and speeds up to take the boy back, instinct mostly, he knows he won't be able to, only for his body to not move. He doesn't understand for all of a split second and when he does he cannot move his head to glare at the Nara. He can speak though."Release me right now Nara." gritting his teeth.

Shikaku can say he sympathize with the second Hokage, in a family on geniuses, or at least compared to the general population but not the high end shinobi, he can say he has been frustrated many times when telling stories or trying to get a point across. Even jokes are sometimes frustrating outside of 25% of the clan. He can plainly see the man would have progressed differently had he wanted to hurt anyone, which includes the limp child currently going trough a detailed medical checkup by the white haired male.

Shikaku can tell by the lack of treats from Fugaku that the man knows it as well.

This situation is much harder to explain than a 15 minute childhood story, and all the clan heads know that explaining something as detailed and unprecedented as this mess to their level of detail will take some couple of hours, even more obvious is that Tobirama doing the explaining will take some three times those many hours.

Fugaku is annoying him by tugging on his shadows but Shikaku watches the second Hokage carefully, he seems to care too much for a being he does not know or doesn't have any clear connections to so far as logic dictates. The possibility of actual, real, reincarnation is leading his other justifications with 30% of likelihood, it's a lot, considering he has many theories and they all take a little off of the 90%. He always reserves 10% for unthought of theories.

"You are ok." Tobirama's whisper is loud in the room, over all the tension. He is so in the moment, for a little while immersed completely in making sure the limp body in his arms is ok, that even the people that do not know him can feel the honest fondness and relief in his tone. His body language doesn't give an inch until he starts sawing a little.

He should but a better mask on but finds himself kissing the boy's brow. Fuck it, he is dead, Harry will be the one dealing with this mess.

For the first time all ninja can notice how much the ex-Hokage cares for this boy. His instance changes significantly. It's still tense and straight backed. His face mostly expressionless, but they can all see it. 

If this is an act, color Shikaku impressed.

Tobirama puts his left hand beside Tsuyoshi's head and pets the hair covertly because he can't not do it, his right arm under his burden, holding him securely to his body. He makes a rat sign, one handed, and promptly starts transferring chakra, it's very difficult business, and quite dangerous, specially for children, but if there is one thing Tobirama was good at was justsus. Medical ninjutsu is still justsu, he helped Chiyori-sama redesign this one for easier learning in the war and he feels safe transferring his chakra to Tsuyoshi's tiny body in his arms. So tiny and frail and cute.

Broken out of his trance by his Anija he looks at Hashirama and answers the question he didn't hear. "He is ok, just mild chakra exhaustion." Hashirama raises his eyebrow at him. 

"Well, that's fantastic news." Hashirama smiles but doesn't add, 'call you tell me why you care so much about him now? Reincarnation really isn't a proper explanation'

Giving Tobirama a second to do his magic he walks to the blond man beside little Saru. He smiles as he aproches, sure that the other shinobi in the room are a little more tense by Tobirama's display of speed.

The blond smirks gently back at him but Hashirama can see the pain the man is in. His brother is occupied and the room, though unappreciative of the confusion they are in, can appreciate the break and respect their position in all of this. They are not stupid, they were called here for a reason, they know the Shinigami and child demanded their presence, they can see the second Hokage, that should be dead, has a strong connection to the suspicious child, they can also deduct their time has not come to press for answers.

Their best option is to let it all unfold. Besides, they would have tried to extract the child if they actually believe it's innocence or if he seemed in great danger.

Fugaku knows this as well, but that is his kid and this is all too much fucking stress, he had to deal with much chaos tonight from kyuubi and protecting the civilians and whatnot, he just cannot calm himself down enough.

Hashirama looks the blond in the eyes and his own crinkle at the edges. "Tell me if it hurts differently from a bruise ok?"

Minato rubs the back of his head. "Yeah, sure. Thanks Hokage-sama."

Hashirama starts healing him from his midsection up, always better to make sure the guts are safe. The blond has a lot of damaged tissue in his chest but most of it is semi-healed, he must have received care immediately or he would have bled out. 

Over the years Hashirama had seen so many people bleed out it was a bit ridiculous considering the other things medical ninjutsu was able to do.

"So, how did you end up like this little one?" Hashirama knows the most likely cause but it's never bad to know more.

"Maa... The kyuubi did a number on me, my wife died and I was trying to seal the kyuubi and it just went from worse to worse until I got pierced by its claws."

I was sure I would die but my blood started to trickle instead of gush and I survived somehow, he doesn't say. I'm still unsure what I would have preferred, he doesn't say. He doesn't need to, Hashirama looks down at him like he hears it just fine.

Minato smiles with watery eyes at the founder of his home. Hashirama smiles softly back and pets him in the head. 

The first Hokage focuses on rejuvenating the most dreadful wounds and relieving the pain, mostly Minato is out of danger after he finishes the first aid work and there isn't much else he can do. The previous medic had already stopped any bleeding and fixed what bones could be fixed quickly.

Hashirama's smile goes back to being big and happy. "There you go! All patched up, anything else you will have to go to the hospital or ask the white haired dope over there!"

A blue armor comes flying at Hashirama's head. He ducks and laughs merrily.

Then he is back at his brother's side. Approaching carefully, slowly bringing his hand to the child's head and petting it, then smoothing his fingers down the soft cheek and softening up himself, that is one cute child. 

He always liked children, one of the things he, Madara and Tobirama had in common. Madara would protect anyone younger than him twice as hard and many times Hashirama had caught him preventing toddlers from toppling or hurting themselves. 

Tobirama would just watch them from afar, making sure the orphanage always had what it needed and the caretakers were fair and decent, once or twice Tobirama had held a baby and, aside from today, those were the times he had seen his brother at his most gentle. 

Hashirama refuses to consider the times his soldiers died and Tobirama held their hand as they faded. That was more resignation and pretending than real softness.

As he looks up to his brother's face the little bundle of cute stirs up and the green chakra tappers off.

Automatically Tsuyoshi wraps his fingers in Tobirama's clothing and squeezes his eyes tight shut, even though Tobirama knows he smells awful Tsuyoshi gets closer, looking for even more contact.

Tobirama shakes the child awake gently and the kid rubs at his eyes and looks at him. Realizing who it is and that it's not a dream he smiles adoringly at Tobirama and Tobirama smiles back, a little oddly from disuse.

"Hey you, awake now hmm? Everything ok?" Tobirama says in whisper.

"Hummmm." Tsuyoshi shakes himself from side to side a little and Tobirama makes sure to hold him securely and adjust his hold so the boy is more upright, not realizing until then that he ended up holding him like a baby.

Tobirama bounces him a little to make sure he doesn't fall asleep again. "Tsuyoshi-kun I need a favor, a really important one, can you help me?"

Tsuyoshi is holding him tightly around the neck and he tries to look the child in the eyes."hey, Tsuyoshi, it's really important, don't you want to help me?" He feels a little bad manipulating the child, knowing he feels a pull to help Tobirama and doesn't even know why, but it's Harry, eventually he will forgive him for it.

Tsuyoshi pulls himself closer to Tobirama, peeking out just for a second, and nods in his neck." But I'm sleepy Draco."

Tobirama starts the chakra transfer again, to give the kid a boost, even with the chakra replenished the person still feels fatigue. By filling up Tsuyoshi with chakra Tobirama forced his body to wake up momentarily but he won't stay awake much longer.

"I know you are tired love but I need you to be strong right now, I promise that next time you wake up you won't feel tired or itchy anymore ok?"

"Okay."

"Very good. I need you to repeat something back to me. Ready?"

Tsuyoshi pulls back a little and nods at Tobirama, who cuts the chakra off again. In the corner the Shinigami pays extra attention, he knew there was a way for the couple to get the soul out of each other's body safely but he had never seen it.

"Repeat it back to me ok?"

Tsuyoshi nods. The room is on the edge of their seats.

" What would you do, trapped in Hogwarts' restriction wards, naked, and the giant squid pulls you under?"

Tsuyoshi looks at him with an adorable pout.

"I'll repeat it again, you don't have to say it perfectly, just understandably." He says it slower. "What would you do, trapped in Hogwarts' restriction wards, naked, and the giant squid pulls you under?"

Tsuyoshi nods again and looks determinate as he takes a breath and starts talking. " What would you do, trapped in Hog-art' restition wards, naked, and the giant squid pulls you under?"

Tobirama smiles at him. "I would put on a bubble head charm and wait it out, the squid is friendly, everybody knows that." He raises an eyebrow as the child's eyes turn avada green and knowledgeable. 

Harry smiles back. "You always have to find another answer don't you? Just agree to the tattoo protkey, you know you want to."

"I refuse another tattoo, one is more than enough thank you." Tobirama breathes and suddenly Tsuyoshi's body is limp, from the mark in Tsyoshi's leg a smokey shadow rises up until it starts getting solid and opaque.

Tobirama's stag moves acros his ribs, moving its head closer and blinking up at the smoke, than looking away and back again.

The ninjas all get ready for more trouble but can see that this is what Tobirama was after all along, they can only wait and be ready.

Fugaku appears by Tobirama's side and feels Tsuyoshi's neck for a heartbeat, it's strong and healthy, Tsuyoshi looks gently asleep. He doesn't dare take Tsuyoshi now but as soon as he stops staring at his kid there is a green eyed, disheveled black haired man in a weird smokey like, opaque black clothing and a funny quirk to his lips.

The Shinigami bows to this man and before anyone can say anything Tobirama gives Fugaku Tsuyoshi and punches the man in the face. Then holds him by the arm and pulls him into a hug, holding tight.

The man gets his mind in check and hugs Tobirama back, rubbing his back and whispering "hi" in his ear "I missed you Draco, so much." The man buries his nose in Tobirama's smelling hair.

Tobirama deflates against the man in absolute relief, he hasn't felt so well in way too long, not even once in this life time and he lets Harry hold him upright for just a second, holding him close by the hairs in the back of Harry's neck, making sure he is solid an real and right there. Fuck, Draco missed this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are bother by something tell me and I may change it. Not plot, like grammar and inconsistency and stuff.  
> If you want to use this story as inspiration tell me so I can read it too, please.


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